Second Annual Colorado State Student Water Symposium Runs Nov. 3-5

Graduate and undergraduate students will present results of their research on whirling disease, the effect of cattle on rivers, the control of waterborne microbes and the disappearance of ponds between Colorado’s sand duns at the second annual Student Water Symposium at Colorado State University Nov. 3-5.

Presentations will showcase both graduate and undergraduate work from a number of colleges that involves water, the West’s (and much of the world’s) most precious resource.

Keynote speaker for the event will be Colbert E. Cushing, Fort Collins native and Colorado State alumnus who will speak on "The Living Stream" at 7 p.m. Nov. 3 in the Cherokee Park Room of Lory Student Center.

Cushing, now a consultant and a long-time research scientist for the Battelle-Pacific Northwest Laboratory in Richland, Wash., earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Colorado State in the 1950s and a doctorate from the University of Saskatchewan. His research has focused on the ecology of streams, especially cold desert spring streams. He has taught at Washington State University and Colorado State.

The three-day symposium will consist of oral presentations accompanied by slides or computer-generated visuals, and poster sessions (which present graphics and text in poster format) on water-related research and projects.

This year’s topics include examinations of:

  • the dynamics of whirling disease in the Cache la Poudre River;
  • a scheme for evaluating whether to restore or remove earthen dams;
  • how cattle affect sediment movements in a montane river ecosystem;
  • the use of chlorine dioxide against the disease-causing microorganism Cryptosporidium;
  • Arab-Israeli water conflicts;
  • the impact of water and land management practices on whirling disease in the upper Colorado River;
  • the impact of the Grand Ditch on Kawuneeche Valley wetlands in Rocky Mountain National Park;
  • the effects of lead on human and ecosystem health in the Upper Arkansas River Basin; and
  • the disappearance of ponds in Great Sand Dunes National Monument.

Symposium events will be held in Room 224-226 and Room 230 of the Lory Student Center. A schedule is available on the World Wide Web at http://lamar.colostate.edu/~watersym/.

The symposium is sponsored by Colorado State’s Water Center and the departments of agricultural and resource economics, chemical and bioresources engineering, civil engineering, earth resources, fishery and wildlife biology, rangeland ecosystem science, sociology and soil and crop sciences.